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If you've old CDs you want rid of, but you don't want to give them away, and you can't bear the rigmarole of listing them all on eBay or the like, there's a new trading site which makes it easier.

Music Magpie cuts down the time it takes to sell your CDs by recognising the case barcodes. You just grab a pile of CDs (minimum 5 per transaction) you want to sell, type all their barcodes in to the system, and the site recognises them and gives you an instant offer price.

It's not perfect though; the system wouldn't recognise all the barcodes I tried (especially when the CD was from another country), and sometimes it'll tell you 'we aren't currently buying this CD', presumably when it already has a backlog of copies to shift.

How does it compare?

Generally, you can expect to receive less than you might from eBay/Cash Converters/Cex, and if you've got any rare releases to sell on this isn't the place to do it. Yet if you've shelves full of dusty old 'classic' CDs, this is a great way to clear them out and earn quick cash.

Most CDs go for less than a pound (usually 60-70p), though some double albums, and especially compilations (for some curious reason) can run to £2.50.

I've got an offer. Now what?

If you accept an offer, fill in your details and you'll be sent some postage-paid envelopes to send stuff back in. Once they've received them, you'll be paid. Thus the whole process costs you nothing (though it can take a little while).

Anything else?

The site's also worth a look if you're in the market to buy CDs, as it sells those it receives off pretty cheaply.

Music Magpie has a sister company, Game Magpie, which (unsurprisingly) trades computer games. It works in exactly the same way, but so far doesn't seem to have much stock. If you've tried it, do please let us know how it went.

Please be careful- I just sent three boxes to Music Magpie and Ziffit and BOTH claimed they hadn't received one parcel. When I gave them the tracking code, they magically found the parcel and paid immediately. Even though it had been a long time since they were sent. Clearly a way that they are trying to scam you. KEEP YOUR TRACKING NUMBER!

Just had the strangest experience with Music Magpie. They offered me £30 for my phone - OK not a fortune but I can't afford to be offended. I followed all instructions, packed my phone in it's excellent condition into its original box, with all original bits and pieces, and sent it well bubble-wrapped up to MM. I got an email to say they had received it then 2 minutes later (really, literally) another email to say it was damaged - screen cracked - and they were offering £2. I was surprised how upset I was. Anyway, I rejected it and they said they'd return it. I thought, that's it, I'll never see the phone again or it'll come back with it's screen smashed to prove the point. Nope. Courier just called to deliver my perfect phone in the box, just like I sent it. Now what was the point of that?!

Just had the strangest experience with Music Magpie. They offered me £30 for my phone - OK not a fortune but I can't afford to be offended. I followed all instructions, packed my phone in it's excellent condition into its original box, with all original bits and pieces, and sent it well bubble-wrapped up to MM. I got an email to say they had received it then 2 minutes later (really, literally) another email to say it was damaged - screen cracked - and they were offering £2. I was surprised how upset I was. Anyway, I rejected it and they said they'd return it. I thought, that's it, I'll never see the phone again or it'll come back with it's screen smashed to prove the point. Nope. Courier just called to deliver my perfect phone in the box, just like I sent it. Now what was the point of that?!

I had a similar experience last year. I sent them an iphone 5s in perfect condition. After receiving it, they offered £70 instead of the original £130 because it was 'water damaged'.
I rejected it and they sent it back. I sold it to envirofone for about the £120 in the end

I would say it is very rare for the likes of Magpie (and other "buy back services" to pay out what they originally offer, using all sorts of excuses to knock down the price. Offer a big payout to appear top of the searches, but claim 'damage' (I can recall someone like Watchdog testing out the services with brand new phones purchased the same day from shops and getting reduced offers for 'damage'.

I was offered £90 for a perfect working iPhone 5. I received an e-mail from them informing me the screen was damaged and an offer of £10. I rejected the offer and they posted the 'phone back. The screen is in perfect condition and I have gone back to Envirofone, who I have used before. The offer is lower, but in my previous experience, they are more honest and professional. Don't believe their inflated prices.

I used Music Magpie a couple of months ago and was genuinely surprised they paid what they said they would do within a few pence - especially as I realised I had left a dvd out of the box that should have been in there! I was fully expecting there to be lots of problems or they wouldnt pay... but no! For once everything went better than expected! I'd use them again.

I recently sold old books, DVDs and CDs to Music Magpie, WeBuyBooks, Ziffit and Momox.
I have used Music Magpie in the past and have been happy with their service, although the payment used to be slow.
Having discovered the other companies through the MSE webpage I entered the ISBN codes in all of them and simply sold to the one making the best offer.
MusicMagpie and WeBuyBooks offer the easiest (free) postal service with home collection. Ziffit and Momox offer a drop-off service only.
MusicMagpie confirmed receipt of the parcel exactly a week after it was collected and paid on the same day by bank transfer, accepting all the items. The payment was on my account the following day. Excellent service.
WeBuyBooks and Ziffit confirmed receipt 6 days after posting. Ziffit accepted all the items on the same day, providing a Paypal payment. WBB took 3 working days to check the items (accepting them all) and provided payment by bank transfer immediately after. Both payments arrived on the same day.
No news from Momox two weeks after posting. Since they are in Germany, however, they will naturally take longer.

Update: I just found out that TopCashBack pays cashback on Ziffit and MusicMagpie sales so will make sure to use that in the future.

Last edited by KittaKatta; 05-03-2017 at 2:36 PM.
Reason: Found out about cashback

I've used Magpie a few times but last month used WeBuyBooks for the first time.
I won't ever use them again as I incorrectly put the wrong sort code on my payment details. After chasing them for over a week to see where the payment had gone they eventually confirmed I'd given them the wrong sort code, and I had to find out where the money went.
The bank where it went do not have an account number the same as mine, so presumably my payment is in a suspense account somewhere, yet WeBuyBooks will not ask for the money back (they say it is up to me) but I cannot ask for the money as I did not pay it.
My bank has said WeBuyBooks should be able to retrieve the money but, once again, WeBuyBooks are refusing saying it's nothing to do with them.
All of this added to the fact they said they had not received my parcel for 2 weeks so I was constantly chasing them, has made me regret using them.
If anyone can help me to get my money I'd be most grateful

Last year I used both Ziffit and WeBuyBooks to get rid of a bunch of my CDs. I went through and entered the details into both websites to see which would give me the better price for each item.

I sent 17 to WeBuyBooks for a total of £24.15. All items were accepted and no problems with payment.

From Ziffit I received £18.41 from 28 items I sent them, but 3 of those were flagged as "Problem (Disc Damaged)" and I received nothing for those three. By "coincidence" they happened to be 3 of the highest quoted items in the order. I would have done better off if I had just sent them all to WeBuyBooks.

I was thinking of using MusicMagpie after stumbling across the post on MSE 'Boost your income in 68 ways' but not sure if anyone else has noticed that MusicMagpie change their valuations?
If you add a barcode, you'll get a valuation. Delete it, add again and its a completely different valuation. Did the same with their Android app and iOS app - valuation changes every time.
Not sure if this is common practice and after reading some of this thread, they often revaluate when they get the products anyway. Just annoying that you go to trade in, get offered 1p then it could be 19p next time. If i was trading 10 DVDs in, i could be offered 10p or £1.90!

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